


Building Gingerbread Castles

by Neyiea



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 21:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8913070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neyiea/pseuds/Neyiea
Summary: Ziggy obtains an unexpected partner for the annual gingerbread house competition.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just felt like writing some Christmas fluff.

Ziggy scuffs his boots in the snow and twists his mitted hands together, trying not to feel left out but ultimately failing.

Sometimes it was awful being the youngest in a group of friends. Even when you did good things people would eventually forget your accomplishments, and even if they didn’t exactly say it they would still think he was too small, too excitable, or too immature for certain activities.

He burrows his face in his scarf, unaware of the blue eyes of Robbie’s periscope watching him.

“I don’t care,” he tells himself, “I don’t need a trophy anyways.”

All he’d wanted was to have fun with the gingerbread house competition, but when they’d all made one earlier for practice he’d gotten distracted and caused one of the walls to cave in, and had eaten a bunch of the decorations, and while the other kids had forgiven him for messing up their test-run they also hadn’t been eager to claim him as a teammate for the competition. Stingy had claimed Sportacus as a partner before any one else could make a bid for the hero, and then Trixie, Stephanie, and Pixel had grouped up quickly, and Ziggy had been left in the dust.

Tears prick at his eyes and he tries to blink them away, shoulders bunching up around his ears as he bites down the cry that wants to escape his mouth. If he got too upset then Sportacus would know. He’d come and say something nice and then talk to the other kids about leaving Ziggy out, but Ziggy didn’t want to be part of a team just because a grown up said that he should be included. He wraps his arms around himself and stares at the ground as he tries to regulate his breathing.

A pair of boots step into his field of vision and Ziggy closes his eyes. Here’s Sportacus now, at least he’ll feel a little better after talking to his hero.

“Did someone say something about a trophy?”

Ziggy’s eyes snap back open and he stares up at Robbie Rotten in shock.

Robbie looks down at him, one eyebrow cocking at Ziggy’s silence, and Ziggy fumbles to think of something to say.

“There’s a gingerbread house making contest starting soon. First place get’s a trophy. You can’t enter alone, though.” Ziggy sinks into his winter jacket, eyes drifting down again. “The other kids didn’t think I’d do a very good job, so I guess we’re both being left out, huh Robbie?” It was a bit strange, to feel a sudden kinship for the self-proclaimed villain. Robbie was left out of a lot of things, he hadn’t even been told that the competition was happening, so maybe he knew exactly what Ziggy was going through.

“Well, there’s no reason to act so accepting about it,” Robbie says with a huff. “When people try to stop you from doing something you want to do, do it anyways.”

Ziggy sneaks another look up at the man. “But I don’t have a teammate.”

Robbie gestures to himself grandly, a proud smile brightening his entire face. “Yes you do.”

“But—but I’m not very good at concentrating, and I’ll mess up.”

“You’re a kid,” Robbie tells him dryly, “of course you’ll mess up. Do you think you’re supposed to get everything right on the first try?” Robbie crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. “Children, honestly, unrealistic expectations abound.” 

Ziggy blinks up at him without speaking, and eventually Robbie begins to shuffle his feet, like the silence bothers him.

“Well, are we teammates or not?”

“Sure,” Ziggy is quick to agree, excited at the chance to participate. “If we’re going to be a team, though, you’re not allowed to cheat. We could get disqualified.”

Robbie hems and haws, murmuring a, “me, cheat?” under his breath as if he’s surprised, but then he snorts out a laugh, like he’s pleased at something. “Fine. No cheating.” He holds out a hand, and Ziggy doesn’t hesitate to shake it.

“Cross your heart and hope to die?”

Robbie sighs and traces an X over his chest with one hand. “Cross my heart and hope to die. Now let’s go win ourselves a trophy.” 

His boundless self-confidence makes Ziggy feel a little better about their chances, and he nods as he takes Robbie’s hand and leads him into Town Hall, where the competition would be taking place in a few minutes.

To say that the others were shocked when Ziggy walked in, Robbie trailing behind him, would be an understatement. Once the surprise wore off the children glanced at each other uncertainly while Sportacus was quick to smile and welcome them both, directing them to an unoccupied table where slabs of gingerbread, bags of icing, and bowls of candy were laid out. The same setup was at each other table, where the other teams were conversing about their design plans.

Pixel had even printed out some kind of blueprint, and Ziggy felt nervous all over again.

“Do you think we’ll be okay, Robbie? We don’t have any plans, what if we change our minds about what we want to do when we’re half done?”

“Just follow my lead kid, all of my best work is done on the spot anyways.”

“Ziggy.”

“What?”

“You can use my name, Robbie.”

“Right, yes, of course.” Robbie resolutely kept his gaze down, eyes roving over their supplies like he was memorizing every single detail. “Ziggy,” he said with a slight drawl, as if he were testing out the pronunciation. “I’m good at many things, obviously, but what I’m best at is building and desserts.”

“That makes sense.” Robbie did build gadgets an awful lot, and he did eat cake and sweets all the time. “What should I do, then?”

“How handy are you with an icing bag?”

“Okay, I think? I can make pretty straight lines, but sometimes I squeeze too hard and more icing comes out than we need.”

“Extra icing is just extra fortification.” Robbie tells him, and the strange word echoes in Ziggy’s head several times as he tries to puzzle out the meaning of it. “And we’ll be covering it all up with candy later, anyways. I’ll give you pieces to ice, and I’ll get you to ice all the inside corners once we’ve got the foundation down.”

Ziggy nods happily, sure that he could manage that, and he turns to look at the front of the room as Mayor Meanswell walks in to officially start the contest.

Working with Robbie is a lot different than working with the other kids. Robbie always tells Ziggy exactly what he needs done, and he isn’t a very patient or understanding sort of person, but he doesn’t tip-toe around Ziggy either as if he’s afraid that pointing out he was doing something wrong would hurt his feelings. 

Ziggy doesn’t have the time to get distracted from his work either, as Robbie keeps giving him task after task. Before he knows it their gingerbread house is put together, and all that is left is to decorate it.

“The roof will require some finer work,” Robbie says, taking a piping bag with a narrow tip. “But everything else is your job. Decorate however you like.”

“Sure!” He happily starts sorting out the candy in the bowls in front of him, eager to start adding sweet splashes of colour to the exterior. “You know Robbie, even if we don’t win this has been a lot of fun. Thanks for being my teammate.”

Robbie pauses his task of hand-piping roof tiles on the gingerbread house, looking unsure of what to say. “Well, I guess it has.” His voice raises at the end of the sentence, as if he’s asking a question. “So thanks for being my teammate, too.” His eyes squint a little as he says it, like he doesn’t know if that’s what he should say in this situation.

It is at that moment that Ziggy decides firmly that he’ll be sure to invite Robbie to a lot more activities from now on.


End file.
